Asher Roth issued this statement in response to the flack about Twittergate, as well as the flack about his comments, in an Associated Press interview, about “African rappers” who brag about all their money in the face of poverty in their home towns. (“All these black rappers — African rappers — talking about how much money they have. ‘Do you realize what’s going on in Africa right now?’“) (statement spotted at Nahright)

As of late, statements I’ve made have been stirring up much controversy and speculation. It is in my best interest that I feel I should address these instances personally and specifically. Truth: I am 23 year old imperfect human being who’s world is drastically changing around him. Facebook is no longer for just me and my friends. Twitter is no longer solely for the watchful eye of my parents. A new responsibility and voice has been placed upon me and is being heard well beyond my immediate peers. I’ve been receiving a crash course on perspectives and a very real sensitivity that exists and is an essential part of our world. With that, I’d like to sincerely apologize for any words that have been misinterpreted and may have offended any man, woman or child.

More of the statement after the jump…

The twitter situation was an immature attempt to poke fun at an infamously moronic joke. In doing so, I unconsciously stooped to the level of its originator, making it just as bad, if not worse. Pathetic. Lesson learned – nothing good can come from repeating hateful words, regardless of your intentions. Leaving no context in what was being said and being presented through text (no facial or vocal inflection) the sarcasm of the joke (or lack there of) was not properly perceived and left it purely in bad taste. I immediately apologized for my immaturity but the apologies and original post were deleted by my team in an effort to prevent more people from being offended. Unfortunately, the deletion of these statements led several people to believe that my apology was insincere, which is why I have made the decision to release this statement.

The latest quote on giving back was in response to a question about rappers and their money posed to me by the interviewer. With the question and entire vibe of the conversation not being present in the article, when my statement came out in print it appeared as if I was taking black rappers to task randomly. Not the case. Although I do feel strongly about giving back when we are in a position of power and prosperity, it is not my place to talk about what others should do with their lives. Lesson learned: talk about what you know. You can call them mistakes, I call them life lessons. It is my duty as a human being to choose my words carefully, for I am a kind soul who puts a lot of stock in the progess of humans. I am a work in progress, as we all are and I will take this opportunity to learn and grow. Its bigger than an apology, its an understanding.

Moving forward, I hope we can all take some perspective and guidance from the dialogue that has emerged from these situations. I know I already have and will continue to do so.

Onward and upward

With love,

Asher Roth

Now personally I think Asher’s handlers made a mistake by not letting him address these issues immediately. From what I heard, he wanted to. I dont get the waiting game…and I’m inclined to think that his team only finally gave the green light because they felt forced to. Which is not savvy. You must control a situation like this so that it doesnt control you.

Having said that. I think it’s important that artists and people in general are able to voice their opinion, unpopular or generalist or even unreasonable. In this case of the AP quote, the comment doesnt read to me as a hate-filled one, maybe just a presumptuous one. And in the case of the Rutgers tweet, repressed ignorance doesnt get the opportunity to be addressed and fixed. So hopefully its a learning mistake.

” With that, I’d like to sincerely apologize for any words that have been misinterpreted”

That’s not an apology. I HATE apologies. You said what you meant, own up to it. So what if some people are offended..and first of all, NOBODY IS OFFENDED anymore! There are just handfuls of “letter writers” that love to complain before they even take a second to realize if they were offended or not. What Asher said was not apology-worthy. (btw black male, age 26 checkin in). I’m sick of this PC culture that has become so sensitive. The last time I was really and truly offended by something in public was regarding the Kramer thing…..before that, I couldn’t tell you when. All these whistle blowers in today’s society annoy me. You can’t say ANYTHING anymore.

YO SUN… IM BLACK FRUM DA BX AND DAT NIGGA AINT LYIN. WEN I HEAR THESE ARTISTS CONSTANTLY SAY HOW PAID THEY ARE(I WEAR BALLY’S) AND HOW BROKE I AM(YOU WEAR REEBOKS) THEN YOU DONT NEED MY MONEY. EVERY RAPPER IS FUKN MY GIRL. LISTEN TO THE LYRICS PEOPLE. PAPER MONEY WAS THE DEATH OF GOD . THEY DONT REACH BACK AND ATTEMPT TO EDUCATE THE MASSES WHO ARE DEAF DUMB AND BLIND. HERE IT IS 2009 AND YOU STILL GOT CATS ACTUALLY IN THE DRUG GAME THINKIN THEY GONNA CUM UP…….WRONG…THIS AINT 88.

Wow @ thebrodie. You don’t give a sh** about where your ancestors come from? Scratch that- you don’t care that their are people out in the world who have nothing, who are constantly being persecuted on the basis of inferiority and you don’t see how constantly screaming about how much money you have when the average person is living below the poverty line is a big deal. Wow! Even Cam said he dresses down and tones down the money talk when he’s in the streets. smh.

I’ve never posted here before, but this topic has drawn me out. I’m not sure how anybody can really assume this apology is sincere when he has so much at stake.

Secondly I’m confused as to how he can criticize some “black rappers” for spending/showing their money off, when he spends so much time reflecting his party life style (however I do agree somewhat with his statement). He’s no Chuck D.

This issue arose because he’s suburban/rural, white, and the only connection he has to urban minorities is that he’s a rapper. There is nothing wrong with that, but without any real experiences with blacks/Latinos, he has no clue what to say. If he grew up in a city, he would have quickly learned whats good. But since he didn’t here we are, I guess he’s learning now.

Sometimes I wonder if things get blown this far out of proportion cuz there a shortage of quality music so the sidelines stories get thrown into the forefront. Did any other artists or any of Roth’s musical peers say anything about this?Honestly you had a bad joke by a kid and a truthful statement that I guess he “wasn’t supposed to say”?

This is a prime reason I avoid Twitter.Who needs the whole world in your conversations?lol

I GUESS IM DA ONLY REAL NIGGA ALIVE. CAUSE THIS WHITE BOY SAID DA TRUTH. HE IS INTERACTING WITH OUR CULTURE A LIL MORE EVERY DAY AND ITS PAINFULLY OBVIOUS HE SAW WAT DUMB ASS NIGGAS IN HOOD CANT SEE. WHEN ARE WE GONNA TAKE RESPONSIBILITY. BILL COSBY WAS RIGHT. WHY DA FUK WOULD OUR WOMEN ROLL OUT OF BED AND GO TO WALMART IN FUKN FLIPFLOPS AND PAJAMAS. THESE RAPPERS ARE BAAAAAALLLLLLLIN…THEY DONT NEED ANY MORE OF MY MONEY

Im so confused, people on this site, and across the internet are calling out Asher Roth for what he says on twitter and in some dumb interview. They are also hassleing him about his pro-party and drinking lyrics, something he has lived. Asher Roth is a white kid who spent some time in college and grew up in the burbs he raps and talks about what he sees. Whats wrong with bringing up the fact that so many black rappers rhyme about cars, jewels and bangin your hos while their own people are starving? Meanwhile its perfectly fine for rappers like 50 cent, lil wayne, and rick ross…all rappers who live in posh mansions in nice neighbor hoods to talk about guns, drugs, shooting niggas, and banging hos? something they dont live. can some one explain this to me?

Whateva-a point is a point taken, Africa is mothafuckin dying and the 1st time I ever saw it depicted in a civil manor is on the damn No 1 Ladies Detective Agency show, so if you’re black and you claim to be ‘gettin it in’ (lyin ass crumbs) the you DO need to be givin back. Oprah-school, Jay-Z-water. Wayne & Baby -I haven’t even heard of any post-katrina build up??? Somebody tell Kanye, while his head keeps spinnin ovr heartbreak that Africa could use a mothafuckin hospital or 2 or 300!!! Tell Hustle Scrimmons to make a sizable donation to Riders For Health instead of tryin to push spoken word down your throat every 3yrs.

im a negro lol (i just said that ) ahem okay im black and i noticed the tweet when it first came about i got the sarcastic nature in which it was intended but i still said to my self rissskaay asher roth risky
blacks r sometimes really close minded they wanna drag everything through the dirt for satisfaction sometimes i understand making an example but c’mon u knew what he was sayin given we were all awre of the don anus i mean imus situation social comentary thats like pokin fun at gays or even letting a latino call u nigger cmon with the double standards yall even say nigga right back to them cuz they dress like u? why not spic? relax give that attention to what really deserves it stop showing the world how miserable u r cuz they see one act like that and think we all act like that info wouldnt u laugh at somebOdy if the called u a chink in a hateful manner ?how many people turned out to march with al sharpton dumb ass for shawn bell wHich was a real worthwhile cause to come out in numbers for yall half steppin with this civil rights stuff man go hard or go home in the immortal words of earl simmons IF I EVER LET THE WORDS OF ANOTHER NIGGA BOTHER ME I MIGHT AS WELL LET THE SPERM OF THAT OTHER NIGGA FATHER ME shouts to eben gregory 1

i wonder if the apology woulda came if his sales wasnt low.
as a blackman that is working to build parts of africa back, who is asher roth to say what someone should do with there money? majority of blacks identify them self as americans and in america poor people who makes money like to flaunt it (country music artist do the same stuff), if they DONT wanna do nothing but make it rain on some “hoes” then thats there choice. i hate when white people wanna tell other races or countries what they SHOULD do.
so let me get this str8
he “apologize” for his stupid nappy head hoes comment but wanna get at “african” rappers for not giving back to africa??? this guy got the nerves or us as a race is getting soft.

I put the question in quotes mocking his question about rappers knowing what goes on in Africa. The main idea of my statement was the hypocrisy of “what he’s living” against what he’s accusing other people of doing.

Why is it that no one can make an objective criticism about us as a people if they themselves are not black? Why is it that instead of actually looking at the substance at what the dude has said, we fall back to makin ignorant statements? The dude was not telling people what to do with their money, he was simply pointing out the paradox that rappers who come from the hood, get money and say things that disparage people with no money, who by statisitics happen to be people who reside in areas where these rappers came from.
Plenty of black rappers (Common, Kweli, Mos Def, Jay Electronica, etc) have addressed the same issues, and instead of talkin greasy about them, these cats simply get no burn on the radio and are called hatas, backpackers, hipsters, underground, or whatever term we use in hiphop to banish artists with different points of view.

Until we as a people can begin to address these glaring inconsistencies about ourselves and our communities,then we gonna continue to find ourselves in the same situations generation after generation.

It is sad how we give little suburban white kids a voice into our community. The problems lies within us really. We as so-called minorities have been fed this non-sense that Africa is poor and that “she” needs help bla bla.
Africa needs the superpowers to go away, Afric needs to be left ALONE. We “survived”, created, interacted with the east, built civilizations and carried the world on our shoulders for millenniums but as soon as Asher Roth’s ancestors came in, look at us now…parked in slums in the US and elsewhere trying to be somthing we are not and we should never try to be: white people. What I am saying might be hard but it is the truth. Read some Cheick Anta Diop, Aime Cesaire, Ivan Van Sertima…You will know your past and stop looking up to people who disfigured who you are.

First of all, to get things clear, Africa is the richest continent in natural resources yet it has the poorest population. It is simple, Africa is being pillaged as we speak, it has been for the past 5 centuries and while we sit here entertaining these nonsensical discussions about how we care and how we shouldn’t be dressing up and give back…time is wasting and the carnage continues.
For the brother fro Akron Ohio (and for any black, Indian, Arab, Asian…person for that matter) who has that “I ain’t from Africa (asia…) yo!” attitude, I say brother (sister), you are lost, your roots have been cut off and a plant without roots is bound to die.
Africa is beautiful, matter of the fact, the most beautiful land with the most beautiful people.
Embrace your own and get to know who you are as a people.

And as for Asher Roth, I don’t know the guy and I want to know him even less now that I have read his ignant post…he ain’t worth schooling…there are schools out there for a reason…even though, most of them won’t teach you how great you were, they will probably teach you the greatest civilsation is greece…and of course since you probably don’t know, Egypt (Kemt, BLACK) schooled Greece so in other words that on which this whole civilization is built is from Africa, yet nobody knows it.

It is true.
I don’t find not one rapper who goes about his game this way attractive. I don’t need to hear about what you drive and how many blah blah blah you have. When babymothers struggle(though there are cases where both ends are supremely messed up) and men are chooing to buy themselves new sneakers and clothes, rather than supply their children pampers. I don’t say its the african american culture but I find these situationss common with those who divulge in Rap music and culture so much it destroys their sense of self. They’d do anything by any means necessary to have similar lifestyles…
sorry boo. if he had better words it would be a great statement but when you associate black rappers with africa we can get a little testy. I’m African American, not African. I’m more concerned with my own life and the health of those around me than another countries at this moment. I understand we have to reach out and help others but it’s embarrassing to help other so far away when we can’t help ourselves.

HIS PARENTZ R ON TWITTER KEEPIN’ UP WITH HIS CAREER AND THERE LIKE PLEASE DON’T BE MEAN 2 HIM HE HAD A BLACK FRIEND IN HIGH SKOOL PLUS HE’S MADE SO MANY HIT SONGZ 4 U PEOPLE! IN THEIR DEFENSE THEY GET ALL HYPED ERR-TIME THEY HERE AN EMINEM JOINT ON THE RADIO LIKE Y IZ ASHER RAPING SO ANGRY? ALSO THERE HOUSE KEEPER WAZ BLACK BUT THEY FIRED HER WHEN MEXICANZ STARTED MOVING 2 “Morrisville, Bucks County, Pennsylvania”…